It's just a body

When thinking about the idea that humans are fundamentally a part of the universe, I have to agree with Katie in that it is “more common to separate the universe from the self so that the self is not responsible for the Universe.” But why is this? Why do we think of ourselves as all mighty and powerful creatures when we are really no better than the other plants and animals on our planet – in existence? Also, listening to Watt’s example of a wave in the ocean, I immediately pictured the ending Men In Black when the camera zooms out from the tiny marble like galaxy into our Galaxy, and into another group of galaxies, and finally we see it as just a marble for some aliens to play with. Thinking in these terms, we seem so insignificant, but our human tendency for greed has made us believe that we are special. We feel that our existence is far greater than anything else.

I found it interesting how Katie explained that “We take from the universe what we want and treat it however we want to treat it. How we treat it is a reflection of our sense of relation to it. If we don't sense it as ourselves, we tend to treat it badly.” I question this aspect of treating it badly. Who is to say or judge our actions? We behave in a certain way and get a certain result, but isn’t this just agreeing with the idea that the universe is a part of us as we are a part of it? It may be that I am having trouble abandoning my human construct of beliefs and that we are a product of our universe. We are shaped by it as well as we shape our universe.

In a sense, we and everything around us is nature. Everything we create comes from some sort of substance. We don’t create things out of non-existence. We simply augment what resources we have and I thought it was interesting that Watt explained our buildings as essentially the same as a bird’s nest. The only difference is that our buildings may have gone through treatments by machines, but then again, machines or technology is just an amplification of ourselves, therefore, the process of making our buildings is the same as a bird’s.

Finally, I wanted to talk a little more about the concept that we do not identify with our bodies. Actually, I believe that we don’t identify really anyone else that we truly know by their physical body. I urge anyone to first, look in the mirror at yourself. Really look. It may take 30 seconds or it may take a couple minutes, but if you’re like me, you will begin to freak yourself out. What you will see in the mirror is usually not who you think you are. You will see shapes, colors, and depth that create a transport for your “mind”. Then after you do this, do the same with someone you think you really know. I remember one time I did this to my dad. It was really odd to see his face as simply a face. It did not define who he was. In the semiotics sense, his face or entire body was the referent, but when I thought of my dad, I thought of the person I loved that had raised me and that loved me. I didn’t see him as that face. It’s really creepy to think of our bodies as this but I really think it’s true. This doesn’t mean that I don’t feel that our bodies help define who we are. I agree that the experiences we have are due in part to the limitations of our physical body, but if I were to abandon my current body now and move onto another, I would retain my sense of self and from there continue to add on to it.